Viktor Bryukhanov

Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov (Віктор Петрович Брюханов, Виктор Петрович Брюханов; 1 December 1935 – 12 October 2021) was the manager of construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the director of the plant from 1970 to 1986.

Bryukhanov was born on 1 December 1935 in the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan (at the time part of the USSR).

He was the oldest son out of four children.

His father used to work as a glazier and his mother was a cleaning lady.

He later became the only one of his brothers to receive higher education attaining a degree from Energy Department of the Tashkent Polytechnic in electrical engineering in 1959.

After graduation, he was offered a job at Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.

He worked at the Angren Thermal Power Plant in the following positions: duty de-aerator installer, driver of feed pumps, assistant turbine driver, turbine driver, senior turbine workshop engineer, shift supervisor and became workshop director a year later.

In 1966, he was invited to work at the Slavyanskaya Thermal Power Plant.

He was a member of Communist Party of Soviet Union since 1966.

He started as a senior foreman and rose up to the rank of head of workshop and finally, deputy chief engineer, finally resigning in 1970 to build a nuclear power plant in Ukraine (which at the time was also part of the USSR).

Between 1970 and 1986, he was repeatedly elected member of the regional district office of Kyiv, Chernobyl, and Pripyat city committees of the party.

Viktor met his wife Valentina at Angren Power Plant.

Valentina was an assistant to a turbine engineer and Viktor was a trainee fresh from the university.

In 1970 the energy minister offered Bryukhanov a new assignment – build an atomic power plant consisting of four RBMK reactors on the banks of the Pripyat River in Ukraine.

Initially, Bryukhanov proposed construction of pressurized water reactors (PWRs), but this decision was met with opposition stating safety and economic reasons supporting construction of RBMK reactors, which was eventually performed.

At a cost of almost 400 million roubles, Bryukhanov was responsible for building the reactors from scratch.

As there was nothing nearby, he would need to bring materials and equipment to the construction site.

He organized a temporary village, known as "Lesnoy", and had a schoolhouse built.

In 1970, he was joined in Lesnoy by his wife, six-year-old daughter and infant son.

By 1972, they had moved into the new city of Pripyat.

During construction, deadlines were missed due to tight schedules, lack of construction equipment, and defective materials.

Three years after assuming the role of director, the plant still had not been completed.

He offered to resign, but his resignation was torn up by his Party-appointed supervisor from the Energy Ministry in July 1972.

On 1 August 1977, two years later than planned and more than seven years after the planning and the construction of the plant was launched, the first reactor of the Chernobyl Power Plant went online.

At 8:10p.m. on 27 September the same year, Ukraine's first nuclear electricity ran across 110 and 330 kilovolt lines and on to the Soviet power grid.

Bryukhanov presided over the response to fuel element damage at Reactor 1 on 9 September 1982, when contaminated steam was vented into the atmosphere.

The radioactive contaminants had spread fourteen kilometers from the plant and reached Pripyat, but the authorities determined that the public should not be informed, and that decontamination was only necessary on the grounds of the plant itself.

Reactor 4 became operational in December 1983.

On 26 April 1986, the head of the chemical division called Bryukhanov to report an incident at the station.

He had not been informed that there was another attempt at the rundown test that night.

While on a bus passing by the fourth reactor block, Bryukhanov realized the upper structure of the reactor was gone.

He ordered all authorities to meet at the nuclear bunker in the basement of the administration building.

Bryukhanov attempted to contact the shift supervisor, but there was no answer at the fourth reactor block.

He then activated a General Radiation Accident on the automatic telephone system, which sent a coded message to the Ministry of Energy.

He then had to report the situation to his superiors in Moscow and to the local Communist officials.

Lacking high-range dosimeters, officials had difficulty determining whether a radiation release had occurred or not and, if so, how much radiation had been released.

Bryukhanov, assisted by chief engineer Nikolai Fomin, instructed the operators to maintain and restore coolant supply, unaware that the reactor had already been destroyed.

The civil defense chief told him that radiation had reached the maximum reading of the military dosimeter of 200 roentgens per hour.

At 3:00a.m., Bryukhanov contacted Vladimir V. Marin, the official in charge of nuclear matters of the Communist Party at his Moscow home to report the accident and assure officials that the situation was under control.

The radiation team reported that levels was only 13 microroentgens per hour, which was reassuring but incorrect.